Henderson State put together a pair of late inning rallies, but the Reddies fell short as No.6 ranked Southern Arkansas beat the Reddies 7-6 and 7-4, Saturday in Magnolia, Ark.

With the losses, Henderson State falls to 20-16 overall and 13-11 in the Great American Conference, while first-place Southern Arkansas improved to 29-7 and 22-2 in league play.

In the opener, Henderson jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first-inning as Jordan Taylor hit his fifth home run of the season which also scored Parker Jones who walked earlier in the inning.

Southern Arkansas responded with two runs in the second and three more in the fourth to take a 5-2 lead.  The home team added two more runs in the eighth-inning before the Reddies put together a big ninth-inning.

Joe Myers started things for the Reddies with a single to left field. With one out, Jackson Martin provided a pinch hit single followed by an Alan Hall double that scored the first run of the inning.

Jones drove in the second run with a single to center field, with Taylor driving his third run of the game with a base hit to left field. Henderson scored its fourth run of the inning courtesy of a SAU error and would have runners on the corners with two outs.

SAU relief pitcher Makenzy Larsen would get out of the inning and end the game when he got Nolan Ryan to ground out to first.

Taylor finished the game going 2-for-5 with 3 runs batted in, while Jones was 2-for-3 with a RBI and two runs scored.

In the finale, SAU scored three runs in the first-inning and four in the third to jump out to a 7-0 lead.

Henderson got on the board in the fifth when Dylan McCain led off the inning with a single, followed by a double provided by Myers to put runners on second and third. McCain scored when Kearon Redmon reached on an error while Myers came home on a double by Turner Sparks.

The Reddies went on to load the bases with no outs, but SAU was able to get out of the inning turning a double-play and get Taylor to fly out to deep centerfield to end the inning.

Henderson would again mount a threat in the final inning of game two as the Reddies loaded the bases as Myers and Martin both walked and Redmon singled before SAU relief pitcher Hunter Vasquez entered the game.

With Alan Hall at the plate, Myers scored on a wild pitch to make the score 7-3 while Redmon advanced to third and Martin to second. Vasquez got Hall to pop out in foul territory for the first out of the inning.

Jones then drove a single to centerfield to score Redmon and bring the tying run to the plate.

With runners on the corners and one-out, Taylor walked to load the bases for Colton Coffman.

SAU again turned to Larsen to finish the game. The sidearm right-hander retired the next two Reddies on strikes to end the game.

The Reddies totaled six hits in the game with Coffman leading the way going 2-for-3 with a double, with Myers and Sparks also having doubles.

Henderson State returns home Tuesday for a double-header against Mississippi College with the first pitch set for 3 p.m. at Clyde Berry Field.